Layers of Meaning

For more than 20 years Judith Hoyt has parsed the human figure in metal and mixed media. Beginning with a salvaged scrap of metal, wood, a book, or other material with a history, she fashions solitary or paired figures, often with a surprised or pensive mien, She is a metallist to the extent that fabricated metal forms provide a ghostly surface on which opaque paint is sparingly applied. The scale is intimate, even in the large wall pieces. Tightly clustered on the studio wall their dialogue buzzes with the silent hum of human voices. To share space with them is to hear their cacophony of silence. ganoskin

BeGallery offers this perspective on Hoyt’s work: “Judith Hoyt creates works that are akin to short stories. Materials at different stages of abuse, disintegration and decomposition come into their own again. One can look at them for long periods of time and wonder about the figures and imagery in her work and how the prior uses and lives of the materials have fused with her vision. And yet, the materials have their own history, with Hoyt creating a sophisticated visual environment for the second “telling” of their stories…

Hoyt explains her process: “The figures in my work hold the pain, pleasure and spirit of the human condition. They carry a psychological edge — that thin line between sanity and madness. Each piece evolves through trial and error with the shapes and colors of the materials often guiding the development. I find metal that is in the process of being reclaimed by the earth along the road and in dumps. The metal is discolored, corroded and misshapen by the random process of history. This history gets passed on to the figures. These figures feel primitive but have a relevance to the present.”

More examples of her work are avaible online at tabboo studio.

I am finding myself moving from pure textile/quilt art into multimedia, assemblage and mixed-media art. The textiles often play strongly in the mix, but the ideas that I am finindg in these other fields greatly widen the view. One great article on the introduction of humor and pop art into the craft vocabulary is Celia Ben Mitchell’s article: Heart and Head, The Life and Work of Don Tompkins. The article provides an overview of the career of Tompkins, with an emphasis on the motivations and growth:

“… This first pendant is a tableau, the inscrutable parts of a short story, a fable, a private mythology. A world. In this work, and more fully in the mature series that soon followed, Tompkins crashes the party’ of American Modernist jewelry, bringing eccentric materials and new techniques, social and political satire, the detritus of popular culture, private histories, bawdy good humor, and just plain good fun to the workbench.

… Including the first medal-like pendant, there is a record (likely still incomplete) of 25 commemorative medals. Naturally, some are clearly richer, more cohesive and visually dynamic than others, such as Henry Miller (1968); Patriotic (Fuck Communism) (ca. 1969); Nixon (1969-72); Janis Joplin, Minnesota Fats, Martha Mitchell and Jack Zucker (all 1971 , quite a run); Jackson Pollock (1972); what must be considered his masterwork, Banting and Best (1972); and Iran Karp (1974). These medals possess the visual grace that Tompkins brought to his earlier traditional jewelry, together with biting parody, balls-to-the-wall social commentary, often a full-­blown wit and at turns a tender, personal touch.

Jack Zucker (ca. 1972) is one of the gems and comes out of a terrific story. Zucker, a Philadelphia union organizer, was a friend of Betty Tompkins’s parents. Along with so many intellectuals of the 1950s, lie was called up before Senator Joseph McCarthy’s specious Un-­American Activities Committee and asked to defend himself. He said, “Senator McCarthy, I have more patriotism in my little finger than you have in your whole body.” Tompkins commemorates those words in the work, along with an etched portrait of Zucker, an American Federation of Labor pin, and a kitschy cast charm of a dancing girl, all wonderfully balanced in the grid format. A terrific tribute.”

Lark Books seeks excellent images to publish in a juried collection of quilts for 500 Quilts, the latest in their 500 Series to be published in Spring 2010.   The announcement reads:

Both art quilts and traditional quilts are welcome in fabric and other media. Diverse designs, materials, and techniques are desired, from traditional to cutting edge. We accept high-quality transparencies, slides, and digital images. There is no entry fee. Important note: Lark Books will only publish photos of entries containing text and images that are free of copyright, or for which the artist (or approved institution) holds copyright.

Artists will receive full acknowledgment within the book, one complimentary copy, and discounts on the purchase of additional books. Artists retain copyright of their work.
Entries must be postmarked by October 24, 2008.

Guidelines and entry forms are now available on Lark’s website:
<http://www.larkbooks.com/submissions/artist-submissions>

“What I’m really interested in is the future and what it looks like” and “in inventing a future through history and material culture and art.” – J. Morgan Puett, designer and artist. Puett elaborates further on this philosophy: “It’s not about nostalgia or re-enacting,” she said. “I believe that all of these time periods and histories are pressing in on us at once.” These quotes are from a NY Times article, In Her Own World by Alastair Gordon. Be sure to view the related NY Times slideshow.

I just finished re-decorating my bedroom with mustard-colored and ivy-covered painted walls, faded floral curtains and a blue floral strip quilt. The room reminds me of the comforts of my grandmother’s house in Wichita, when I was growing up – but it is not a direct quote of her 1920s/30s prairie heritage. The room instead reflects a collective memory of comfort and coziness, while still being part of the 21st century.

Then this morning, I read the NY Times article and realized that what Puett was creating is what we should all be doing, making a place that is an “ongoing experiment in art, design and aestheticized living”…The house is filled with Ms. Puett’s and Mr. Dion’s eclectic collections of art, antiques, hundreds of books, stuffed birds, skulls, outsider art and ephemera. It’s at once a private, family space and a public, multipurpose environment, as Ms. Puett describes it. “This is not my dream house,” she said. “This was designed as a central community kitchen and reference library.”"

The web site for Puett’s space, called Mildred’s Lane, defines the project as: “Mildred’s Lane is an artist-driven project for the rethinking of the contemporary art complex, which is tucked away in the woods of Pennsylvania, on the upper Delaware River. It is a large-scale collaboration between the artists J. Morgan Puett and Mark Dion who have lived and worked on this rustic 96-acre site since 1998. From the beginning there has been a desire to critically re-imagine the space between environmental practice, artistic domesticating, and socially engaged research. By hosting and supporting international cultural producers, organizing informal residencies, developing site sensitive projects, seminars, dinners, research think tanks and more — they have made Mildred’s Lane a significant but invisible center for new forms of cultural practice.”

Puett’s web site offers glimpses of many more of her installations, including grafters bee shack with embroidered veil and miscellaneous bee-related textiles; the nurse’s uniform, which covers the uniform’s history and future (intergalactic nurse); and a collection of wonderful shots of her (former) NY store, when it was in Soho.

Becky Stern demonstrates how she created a lily pad embroidery piece that responds to motion with blinking lights and sound. “I’ve been working with Leah Buechley’s LilyPad Arduino, and in true embroidery sampler fashion, have composed this circuit to see what I could do. The embroidery uses traditional floss and techniques mixed with lights and sounds generated by the onboard software. The amount of light sensed by the sensor changes the speed and pitch of the lights and sounds generated. Move your shadow or hand over it to experience the changes.”

If you want to create a simpler electronic embroidery of your own, Stern has posted a video tutorial at Craft zine: “Using LEDs and conducive thread, you’ll be able to create your own embroidery of a frog with light-up fireflies.” On her web site, Stern has posted a set of photo-based directions and list of supplies and suppliers – including where to find the conductive thread!

O’Reilly has a new book, Fashioning Technology, by Syuzi Pakhchyan that gives a deeper exploration of the current melding of technology and textiles. “With this new palette of materials, we can now create objects infused with magical and mysterious qualities. The first book of its kind, Fashioning Technology is just beginning to scratch the surface of what is possible.” Watch a video of Pakhchyan explaining her book, her background, her inspirations and some future visions. This all goes way beyond the ipod and sneaker embedded chips!

Meggiecat is back! This was one of my favorite blogs for years – then she vanished. I guess that we all need a breather. But Meggiecat is back with wonderful articles, tips and all kinds of visual treasures. Do yourself a favor and drop by – but do plan to stay and browse through her archive of links that extends back until 2004.
Spoonflower On-demand fabric printing is one of Meggiecat’s recent finds. This is the brainchild of a fellow Chapel Hill-ian (whom I have yet to meet!), formerly of Lulu on-demand book printing. When Spoonflower is up and running, we can all have our own fabric made to order:

“Meggiecat wrote the other day to ask the most obvious question about printing fabric on Spoonflower, which is “what do we need to do to prepare designs?”

Image Size:
You can take an image of any size (240 dpi or greater) and repeat it to create a pattern. Alternately, you could create the pattern repeat on your own computer and then upload a large file equal in size to the amount of fabric you wish to order. For example, the fabric we will be using is 44″ wide (112 cm), so if you wanted to order a yard you could create an image that is 44″ x 36″ (or close to that). We have not yet determined if we will need to impose a size limit for files.

Fabric Size:
Once Spoonflower goes live you will be able to order a swatch (8″x8″), a fat quarter (18″x22″) or any multiple of a linear yard. During portions of the beta period we may limit these options temporarily. We will always recommend that you order a swatch of your design before ordering a larger quantity. That will give you a chance to examine the colors firsthand to make sure they printed as intended.”

Fiberarts magazine has a new editor, Marci McDade. She has a broad background, though not necessarily in journalism:

“McDade has never demonstrated a shortage of creative passion. Born and raised in Gary, Indiana, she was a member of the first graduating class of that city’s Emerson School for Visual and Performing Arts. She studied visual art, theater, music, and dance in the school’s seven-year program, and was recruited by Columbia College, where she earned all but one credit of a B.A. in film and video in 1994. (She came back and completed the single missing credit in 2001 to officially earn the degree.)” Columbia College, Chicago

McDade seems to have used some of that creativity in an exploration of embroidery as a drawing medium. One outgrowth of that was the “white boy” series a set of portraits of men that she “had crushes on.”

Beyond her own work, McDade has caught attention with shows she has curated. She describes a recent show, Girl on Guy as

“a love letter to men, the ones I’ve known, the ones I never will. It’s a love letter to Chicago, my home for the past twenty years. It’s a love letter to all of the artists who have inspired me during that time to think harder, look more closely, be a better person. Above all this show is my loud and gushing heartfelt declaration in the belief that loving men and being a feminist is not a contradiction.” Girl on Guy catalog (pdf)

Could be some interesting articles ahead!

Creating an engaging composition provides the basic framework of any visual work. Melanie Bilenker creates jewelry, each piece a moment frozen in time, caught at odd angles, reminiscent of ukiyo-e prints. The odd thing is that these miniature ‘paintings’ are made of gold, sterling silver, ebony, resin, pigment and hair.

“The Victorians kept lockets of hair and miniature portraits painted with ground hair and pigment to secure the memory of a lost love. In much the same way, I secure my memories through photographic images rendered in lines of my own hair, the physical remnants. I do not reproduce events, but quiet minutes, the mundane, the domestic, the ordinary moments.” artist’s statement

“By setting individual strands into epoxy resin, she creates life-like vignettes of routine moments, like hands cutting an apple or a woman drawing a bath. Despite their small scale, each maintains the depth and scope of a full-size painting, which is why she makes only about a dozen each year and they cost a pretty penny.”
Daily Candy

How to tell a good friend? One who is kind enough to make a body-double dress form for you (or your daughter). Last week, Nancy came over and made one for my daughter, the fahionista.

In the past year, Nancy has made several for her daughter, experimenting with different materials and techniques. Nancy’s first form was made from all duct tape. That sank into a gooey mess as soon as it was removed from the live model. Her second form used the paper tape technique, but wasn’t the tape wasn’t wrapped tight enough (that attempt was done in the South in July). The third form used paper tape and turned out just right. This is what she repeated for us.

The directions for the just-right drees form are online at Sew News in an article, Sewing Stunt Double by Connie Amaden-Crawford. Materials are pretty straight forward and very well illustrated. Be sure to follow the author’s recommendation on the type of tape!

Materials

• Lawn-and-garden trash bag to fit over the body (not tight or too loose, and long enough to reach 3″ above the knees)
• Duct tape (about 3 yards)
• 3 to 5 rolls of 2″x 60 yard self-adhesive paper packing tape––not the shiny type (See Sources at the end of this article.)
• Permanent marker
• Heavy cardboard scraps
• Basic sheath-dress pattern with shoulder princess seam
• 5 to 6 pounds of polyester fiberfill
• Stand (See Dress-Form Stand.)

For the stand, we used a stripped down pole lamp and a curved wooden hanger. The remaining steps are to cover the form with some soft muslin, stuff it and use it!

A quick word of caution, the article states that the entire procedure takes an hour. Even with one person tearing strips of tape and the second applying it, the entire procedure took well over 4 hours!

Anyone for a stitched 5 foot drumstick? Watch a short video as UK artist, Maddi Nicholson visits the oldest working steam powered textile mill in the world. and then designs and constructs a whimsical textile sculpture. Much of Nicholson’s work features cartoon-like characters, interpreted as fabric sculptures.

At the same Artisancam site, you can see a gallery of Nicholson’s work and take an afternoon trip to a sleazy British seaside town.. The perfect solution to the workday doldrums. I’ve got my smile back!

So Simple; so brilliant: A dotted scarf with mother-of-pearl buttons – and little tails of thread leading the eye here and there!

I first came across greenolive’s work on flickr. Greenolive’ secret identity is as Martine Booth, an Australian designer – both graphic and textiles. She makes many things and tells a small tale about each object. The story behind today’s scarf:

“You like hearing the stories behind the scarves, so here’s another one. A tale of a classic black-and-white spotted scarf which is on its way to my Mum.

1. Start with a silk remnant from Clegs. Yes, this was bought on the same day, the infamous Clegs Boxing Day Remnant Sale.
2. Sew it up, and then decide it looks a bit plain and needs something. Buy said somethings while out shopping with Aunty Shabby.
3. Sew somethings onto random spots on the scarf
4. Voila! A finished scarf complete with a certain je ne sais quoi!”

I am sending this blog entry to the daughter who is taking a fashion design class at Syracuse University. Do you think she’ll get the hint?!

The expansive nature of landscape and the constricted environment of embroidery create an automatic tension. UK textile artist, Carol Naylor explores this relationship in machine stitched wall hangings and smaller framed pieces.

Naylor says about her work:

I stitch directly onto painters canvas using the sewing machine as my paintbrush and the threads as my palette. The weight and intensity of the threads cause distortions to the base fabric, which are deliberately enhanced in order to create more tension, adding a unique sculptural quality. I use this technique to explore and enhance form. Undulations and movement are created that would be impossible to replicate in either formal painting or other textile techniques. Some pieces include finely stitched details to provide contrasts. Traditionally, paint is worked onto the surface of the canvas. A weaver creates a completely new cloth. By covering the canvas totally with stitches that penetrate the material, I transform a flat piece of canvas into a new fabric with three-dimensional potential.

I find that this approach to embroidered textiles provides me with a more painterly approach to textile art. My work is very tactile, and I prefer to leave larger pieces unframed so that the public can interact with it more directly.

Inspiration has always come from two sources. Personal experiences and observations provide the source materials, whilst the works of specific artists have informed my use of colour and line. Dufys placement of dark lines over blocks of gold and blue to describe form, and Klees immaculate use of colour and light within his paintings, are just two of the artists I have referred to when resolving ideas.”